Meeting Death

Part 1 - Original for Steemit Short Halloween Truckers Story.

Part 2

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Like many a Halloween, Scratchy worked, driving the flatbed Pete 357. The late afternoon was very nice, even warm, Arizona was always warm compared to where Scratchy wanted to make it tonight, home, up by Fillmore, Utah. He thought he could be home by eleven pm if he could just get loaded quickly and be on his way.

He was south of Benson, Arizona on AZ 90 and needed to take a left toward Tombstone, that is east on AZ 82. "Halloween and I am headed to Tombstone." Scratchy saw the oddity in that. He laughed as he drove. There was very little traffic. He came to AZ 82 and headed east.

"10 miles east and a right turn on Bristle-cone road, five miles dead end into the mine." He said to himself and checked the odometer to gauge the distance. He wanted to get to Bristle-cone while it was still light enough to easily see the road sign. Hunting for signs on a highway in the dark is one of the things that is no fun about trucking.

Scratchy worked for G&S, a small trucking company with six trucks, skateboards. This was the second time he drove for this company. The reason he quit before was because he thought this truck was haunted.

The other truckers had said it was haunted at the Christmas party, haunted by a driver named Mokee who was killed when a big gas pipe was being loaded in Colorado Springs. The gas pipe fell off and hit him in the head. Mokee was killed instantly, his head taken off. Since then, the truck had been really strange. Scratchy had experienced many a strange experience with the truck and finally quit. He could not take it anymore. Not only did he have the weirdest dreams while in the sleeper, the 'Red Truck' as it was called, could behave very weird from time to time and would break often.

Anyways, after he quit, he was shopping at the Wal-Mart in Richfield, Utah and came upon his old boss Gary and his wife shopping there as well.

Scratchy and Gary began to talk and Scratchy admitted he quit because he did not want to drive the Red Truck. It was haunted.

"Well, I have had two drivers on it since then and they have not had any problems so whatever was wrong with the Red Truck is fixed."

"I won't drive the Red Truck." Scratchy said.

"Very well, you can drive the Green Truck if you will come on back to work." Gary laughed, "Are there any problems with the Green Truck that I don't know about?"

"Not that I have ever heard of."

"Good, then why don't you start on Tuesday. be there at 7:00 am to pick up the truck and I'll send you off on loads." Then they parted and on Tuesday, three days later, Scratchy was off in the Green Truck.

Scratchy did well in the Green Truck. It was not as fast as the Red Truck. The Red Truck was a road rocket. A guy could shave an hour off the eleven with the Red Truck, especially when it was a hilly route. It just had the horses that most trucks don't. Red Truck had big pull, big time, a twenty-one speed, C-15 with two turbos and no smog, a lightweight trailer and guts to go. Scratchy missed the Red Truck and since he talked to the driver that just left it, who had no problems whatsoever with the Red Truck. Scratchy decided he was being an idiot, could use the extra miles and so he took it back.

There was big sign on AZ 82 that pointed with a right arrow just after Bristle-cone Road. Scratchy brought him to a slow and was off to the right on the dirt road. There had been no problems with the Red Truck at all this time. Five miles later Bristle-cone dead ended at a mine. He stopped. He signed in at the guard shack and got his directions to the pickup. It was maybe a mile, not complicated and the sun set just as he saw all the drilling equipment. He parked in an open area to the left of a lot of equipment. Let the Red Truck idle.

A big Navajo, oil worker, walked up to the driver's door and Scratchy rolled down the window. His name was Ben, the big man said and Scratchy could stay right where he was at and they would set the mud tank on the flatbed as soon as the forklift driver came back with a much bigger forklift.

Because he sat so high up in the Truck, he could see a good distance ahead, up a hill on the road; he saw a huge forklift about a mile away, "Is that it?" Scratchy asked the big man and pointed.

The big man looked to his left while he stood on the step, "Yeah that's it. Do you have a hard hat and steel toed boots?" Scratchy nodded.

"Good. Shut er off and we'll have you out of here fast and loaded." Scratchy shut off the Red Truck. The big ma stepped down. Scratchy jumped out and took his hard hat out of the saddle compartment, put on his gloves. He was ready.

So, he talked to the big man while they waited for the forklift and found out that the mud tank was only 18,000 lbs, road low and just needed a few straps. He'd be home for Halloween at around midnight, if not before with a load that light. He was happy. Happy for a Happy Halloween, he took six straps out of the saddle on the other side and laid them on the ground under the side board. Moved some winches into place and waited.

Like the whole thing was scripted to run perfect and fast, the forklift driver picked up the mud tank. A tank that mud goes into from an oil drilling rig, the tank was forty-four feet long, and one piece. The forklift picked it up with ease brought it over to the side of the truck and instead of being over in ten minutes, that's when everything began to go wrong.

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